03/12/2001

A record price for a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was made at Sotheby’s, London on the 29th of November when the artist’s portrait of Omai, an 18th century Tahitian youth, sold for $ 14.6 million (€ 16.5 million), $ 4.3 million (€ 4.8 million) higher than its top-end estimate. London dealer Guy Morrison bought the work on behalf of an anonymous bidder, recording the highest hammer price for an art work in Europe this year and making it the second most expensive Old Master British painting after John Constable’s The Lock, which fetched $ 15.5 million (€ 17.5 million) at Sotheby’s London in 1990. The portrait was offered up by Simon Howard of Castle Howard in North Yorkshire (England), who were the vendors of Michelangelo’s Study of a Mourning Woman which sold at Sotheby’s, London in July for $ 8.4 million (€ 9.5 million). (Andrew Moore)